1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of data processing and the financial management of one's portfolio of credit and debit cards. More particularly, the present invention enables one to maximize the financial benefits that accrue to one who, when making purchases, optimally takes advantage of the temporarily varying special deals and incentives offered by the various providers of credit and debit cards.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most consumers today use credit and/or debit cards for some of their purchases, often by selecting from the multiple cards in their wallets. Card issuers or providers actively promote the use of their cards by offering special deals to consumers when they obtain their card. Some deal elements apply for a limited time when the holder first receives the card, e.g., interest free balance rollover for six months, and others apply permanently to the card, e.g., cash rebates at a fixed percentage of purchases. In addition, many card issuers periodically offer temporarily varying, special deals to their cardholders as an extra incentive to select their card when making purchases. These incentives usually take the form of bonus perks, such as airline miles or other travel credits, cash back, rebates, etc.
There are various parameters associated with these deals, both for those that are permanent and temporary. But there are no standard deals or perks. For temporary deals, the most common parameters are: (a) valid within an effective date range, (b) valid only for particular merchants, product types and/or shopping methods (e.g., online or instore), and (c) minimum purchase requirements. The cardholder sometimes needs to register for (“activate”) these deals for them to go into effect and start accumulating benefits. In addition, temporary offers may be made to redeem rewards at a higher value, e.g., obtain discounted gift cards for specific merchants.
For those who have multiple cards, each of which has its own set of special deals and incentives, it is practically impossible for one to timely keep up with and compare the benefits that would accrue to the individual depending on which of his or her cards is used to make a specific purchase. If the individual is willing to consider applying for and using a new card to make a specific purchase where the enrollment benefits of the new card would be especially beneficially to the individual, this greatly increases the numbers of cards for which this comparative benefits analysis must be done and thereby make it a task that is totally impossible to do in a timely manner. This is particularly true at the instant of purchase in a retail merchant environment, or even at the final step of completing an online purchase.
There do exist on the internet a few websites that provide generalized information on available cards and the incentives being offered by different card providers (e.g., “onlinecreditcardfinder.com,” “creditcards.com”). However, these are primarily “do-it-yourself or self-help” websites on which an individual can get some of the information that they might need to include in any analysis that he or she might undertake to determine which of the cards in one's portfolio is the “best (with respect to the net financial benefit received)” card for one to use for a particular purchase.
There is a need for a method or system that can keep track of all the deals available to a consumer—especially one who can select from a portfolio of cards on which to make a specific purchase. Such a system should ideally automatically perform the analysis necessary in order to advise a consumer on how to, when making a proposed purchase, maximize the financial benefits that would accrue to the consumer from optimally taking advantage of the many temporarily varying deals and incentives offered by the various card providers.